Nutrition and Dietetics Porfolio
As the foundation of nourishment, food is life.
By centering the nervous system as the bridge between food and human potential, a culture is cultivated where nourishment supports whole-person health, self-actualization, and resilience from before birth through every stage of life. The minds and bodies of all people are eased through equitable access and compassionate, interdisciplinary care.
Food Mission Statement - Katryna Bell (2025)
My path into nutrition has been shaped by a sustained interest in how nourishment, environment, and relational context influence development, regulation, and long-term health. I am currently an MSN/DPD student pursuing dietetics training with the intention of working in interdisciplinary settings that recognize nutrition as foundational to nervous system function, resilience, and whole-person wellbeing across the lifespan.
My academic and applied work consistently centers prevention-oriented care, with particular attention to developmental context and the conditions that shape health long before pathology emerges. I am especially interested in how food access, nutritional stability, and early nourishment interact with stress physiology, neurodevelopment, and learning, and how these factors influence lifelong outcomes. This perspective has guided my engagement with topics such as food insecurity as an adverse childhood experience, nutrition and cervical cancer prevention, endocrine and metabolic conditions, and population-level micronutrient status.
My approach to nutrition is informed by health psychology and counseling theory, with motivational interviewing, readiness for change, and compassionate communication central to my clinical style. I am particularly attentive to autonomy, self-efficacy, and ethical discernment in care, especially when working with individuals and communities navigating chronic stress, developmental adversity, or limited access to resources.
Collaborative work alongside physicians, psychologists, social workers, educators, and other allied professionals reflects how I understand health to be formed and sustained. I value settings where nutrition care is integrated into broader systems of support, rather than delivered in isolation, and where learning is grounded in both evidence and relationship.
In addition to clinical training, writing and education are essential to how I engage with nutrition and public health. I am committed to translating research into accessible, meaningful resources that support informed decision-making and self-trust. Through academic writing, educational articles, and community-facing materials, I aim to bridge the gap between nutrition science and lived experience, particularly in prevention-focused and equity-oriented contexts.
Across settings, my goal is to contribute to models of care that honor development, context, and the complexity of human health, while remaining grounded in collaboration, humility, and prevention. I am seeking training that will allow me to deepen clinical competence, strengthen interdisciplinary fluency, and continue building a practice rooted in nourishment as both biological and relational foundation.
About Me
Passions and Hobbies
Reading and learning are how I challenge my assumptions and encounter multiple perspectives. They stretch my empathy, expand my compassion, and disrupt what I do not yet know. Writing is how I engage more deeply with myself, noticing how I respond to and integrate information. Teaching brings ideas alive through relationship, allowing understanding to be shaped and refined in community.
Music and art are forms of communication that bring people together through emotion, movement, and shared interpretation. Across cultures, they—like food—are most alive when shared, offering connection without demand and a sense of belonging through collective appreciation.
Time in nature, especially long hikes across varying terrains, has taught me how systems move, repeat, and change. Through pattern, progression, and beauty, it helps me see beyond the present moment. Traveling expands that understanding, offering new lenses while reminding me how deeply connected and similar we are. Together, they have shaped my values, my sense of belonging, and my belief in progression and beauty.
Learning plants by structure, name, season, and habitat has taught me to slow down and observe closely through sensory experience. The more I learn, the more clearly I understand their roles in ecological and biological systems, as well as their ethnobotanical histories.
Relevant Experience
Clinical Nutrition Supervisor Assistant
Bastyr Center for Natural Health
June 2025 - Present
Student Nutrition Clinician
Bastyr Center for Natural Health
October 2024 – September 2025
Nutrition Education Writer
Bastyr Center for Natural Health
January 2025 – Present
2026 NEDA Week Lead Chair
Bastyr University
November 2025 - March 2026
Peer Crisis Support & Harm Reduction Specialists
Harmonia Sanctuary, Asheville, NC
August 2018-March 2020
Sole Proprietor: Licensed Cottage Foods Business
Mundane Creations
April 2018 - September 2023
Seasonal Kitchen & Event Food Service
Various Locations in the U.S. and Costa Rica
May 2015 – December 2020
Event, Hospitality, and Food Service
Various Locations in the U.S.
May 2009 – February 2020
2024 NEDA Week Co-Chair
Bastyr University
December 2023 - March 2024
Facilitator and Public Speaker
The Transparent Pursuit, Atlanta, GA
May 2018-March 2020
Explore Clinical Nutrition Articles I Have Authored Here
Download and Review Clinical Nutrition Handouts I have Authored Here
Nutrition and Dietetics Resume
If you would like more in depth information regarding my experience, please feel free to download my resume to review at your leisure.
Nutrition and Cervical Cancer Risk: An Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography examining associations between nutritional status and persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, synthesizing evidence on folate and B-vitamin status, genetic polymorphisms, and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) risk to explore nutrition-based approaches to cervical cancer prevention.
Factors affecting recovery in patients in different Selenium environments
A research critique examining selenium status and hypothyroidism recovery, synthesizing epidemiological and longitudinal cohort data to explore how regional selenium deficiency, baseline selenium status, and demographic factors influence thyroid disease prevalence, progression, and recovery outcomes.
Childhood Food Insecurity and Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Trauma-Informed Analysis
A research paper examining childhood food insecurity through the lens of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), synthesizing epidemiological, developmental, and trauma-informed evidence to explore how chronic nutritional instability functions as a form of developmental adversity with long-term health implications and policy relevance.
A Proposed Intervention to Increase Cervical Cancer Prevention
A prevention intervention proposal examining high-risk HPV and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), outlining an education-centered approach to improving cervical cancer prevention, screening adherence, and self-advocacy among under-screened populations.
Debate: Calcium Supplementation is a Safe and Effective Treatment of Osteoporosis
An annotated bibliography developed for an academic debate examining calcium supplementation as a safe and effective treatment for osteoporosis, synthesizing clinical, epidemiological, and longitudinal evidence related to bone mineral density, fracture risk, dosing considerations, and cardiovascular safety.
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
A collaborative, research-based presentation examining polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), synthesizing historical diagnostic frameworks, metabolic and endocrine pathophysiology, and current evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle interventions to inform whole-person, prevention-oriented care.
Academic Achievments
Download and Read an Academic Paper or Presentation I Authored or Collaborated on Here
Professional Goals
Training & Early Practice
In my dietetic internship training and early practice, I am seeking immersive, supervised experiences within interdisciplinary settings that emphasize whole-person, family-centered, and community-based care.
I am particularly drawn to programs that integrate nutrition into collaborative teams alongside physicians, psychologists, social workers, and allied health professionals, recognizing health as relational and shaped by developmental context, environment, and access to care.
The integration of psychological and counseling theory into nutrition practice is central to how I approach clinical work. Grounded in health psychology, I value motivational interviewing, readiness for change, and compassionate communication as essential clinical skills, particularly in settings serving complex, vulnerable, or underserved populations.
I am motivated by feedback-rich training environments that support ethical discernment, reflective practice, and strong clinical reasoning within team-based care.
Continuing Education & Professional Development
Following completion of my dietetic internship, I am interested in pursuing continuing education that deepens my clinical competence at the intersection of nutrition, neurodevelopment, and nervous system health. Areas of particular interest include developmental nutrition, neurodevelopmental disorders, psychiatric nutrition, and central nervous system–focused nutrition care across the lifespan.
Through advanced training, mentorship, and interdisciplinary collaboration, I aim to further integrate evidence-based nutrition with developmental, psychological, and physiological frameworks, supporting prevention-oriented and regulation-informed approaches to care.
Systems & Advocacy
I am drawn to systems-level and advocacy work that addresses how food, stress, access, and environment shape health across the lifespan. I am particularly interested in public health and policy efforts that prioritize prevention, regulation, and nourishment over reactive care, and that integrate nutrition into broader conversations about development, equity, and long-term wellbeing.
Legacy & Integration
Long-term, my work is oriented toward addressing childhood malnutrition and food insecurity as forms of developmental adversity, with particular attention to how early nourishment shapes nervous system regulation, resilience, learning, and lifelong health. I am interested in contributing to prevention-focused models that support families and communities before pathology emerges, recognizing food access, stability, and relational safety as foundational to development rather than downstream interventions.
This vision extends beyond individual care to include community-based education and systems that restore relationship to food as a source of nourishment, agency, and connection. Alongside clinical and public health efforts, I envision integrating food, herbalism, and education through small-scale production and hands-on teaching, creating spaces where skills are shared, curiosity is encouraged, and nourishment is experienced as participatory rather than prescriptive.
Writing, teaching, and creative practice remain central to how I make meaning of this work and offer it to others. Through these forms, I aim to translate complex ideas into accessible knowledge, foster self-trust and skill-building, and contribute to a culture of care that honors development, context, and the human need for belonging across the lifespan.
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